Llajtaymanta

Sunday, March 23, 2008

School girls in Qalla

Qalla is a little rural town within Jesús de Machaqa. Its local school joins boys and girls from different ages.

According to the Bolivian Education System, the school period lasts 12 years which means that children start school at the age of 6 and finish when they are 18. But the situation in rural areas is different, because sometimes parents can´t afford to send their children to school, so they wait a year or two years more which means that they go to school when they are 7, 8 or more years old. This is more complicated with girls because it happens that they have to abandon school after three, four or five years of attending school. It happens because they have to stay at home to help their parents with the daily activities. Other times, when girls are 15, 16, 17 years old they go to urban areas and start working for long hours without receiving an adequate salary.

The day I took this picture, they had got out from school to go to Jesús de Machaqa to participate in a public event to remember the indigenous rebellion of March 12, 1921.